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Fabrication
Sitemap ' FABRICATION' --- --- --- --- --- * See Also Tools ' * See Also 'MMORGP_the_Game_Experience * See Also Economics_of_Production In-Game Crafting/Fabrication (The Part the Player Does) -- Should be an Adventure in Itself : ''' New Formula actions/operations/tests have to be first carried out by the Player with varying efforts of exploring Skill, cleverness, and Investigation/Research on the new method, and maybe Luck (and first finding/obtaining the appropriate Tools/Material/Parts through alot of secondary interactions). Some may be done through Mini-Games/Puzzles (originally developed via Player_Created_Assets )) Skills of the Player's NPC "Team" can/may be added in. The mundane repetitive processes -- The now usable production Formulas (vs. ones still being learned/developed/trained) would be done subsequently by the Player's NPC Henchmen/Lackeys - ONCE the Player has achieved effectiveness themselves. Afterwards there can/may be additional incremental Improvements (attempted/worked at/developed) for the Player's known fabrication recipes/Formulas/patents/solutions. Generally, production starts and stops dependent on availability of raw materials. Note - for the most part, this is a kind of 'workshop' crafting (often just for self consumption - Frequently cheaper than purchasing for something you use alot of). This generally is not some assembly-line operation mass production (there just aren't enough customers to justify that). Fabrication Aspects : * Variability of results (including injuries and destruction) * Unique items based on what goes into them (most often limited to external appearance variations) * Substitutions of compatible parts/materials (often needs to be discovered) * Workable tools vs Optimal tools (quality/efficiency may suffer) * ??? Formulas (technology info) can be traded between Players (have to be 'documented' formalized through the game mechanics - probably requiring a minor Skill to do it) * Clues to some other Formula (serendipity) can be discovered (accidents do happen, though usually not) * Observation of old production facilities can supply 'ideas' (why the Colonels 7 herbs and spices were kept secret ...). Short-cutting the required 'Research'. * The old "Bang on it and it starts to work" is possible sometimes (Risky) * Finding out WHAT can be 'constructed' is only part - Finding out HOW it is constructed is where much of the skill is important. * Extensive fabrication trees for all kinds of things (most of Raptures mechanisms are to be detail props and objects in the game). - Stealing parts from working systems will be handled in interesting ways in the game mechanics. Fingerprints didn't go away when people became Splicers and become ex-Splicers. Security systems still exist. New Rapture isn't Anarchy, and penalties for crimes exist. No doubt there will be a 'security war' between the Players wishing to 'test the system', and the improvements to the game mechanics. Limiting this activity is probably required, as it isn't fun when a Player's efforts are too easily undone by other Players (and the extensive detail the MMORPG offers alot of avenues). --- --- --- --- --- '''MMORPG has Tools/Weapon/etc.. that Wear Out : * Are Found Broken and in Need of Repair - why else would someone discard it ? * A 'Cut feature' from BS1/BS2 - "Was to have the weapons degrade with use, and so be in regular need of repair." - * This MMORPG will have Tools wear and need repairs (same for weapons and other Objects) and worn items may fail in use (so keep a backup gun). * Provides more work for NPCs in repair shops and 'Second Hand' stores... * Enemies weapons and tools can likewise 'wear out' and fail. * Some Splicers are organized enough to have their own repair abilities/specialists/tools --- --- --- --- --- In-game Fabrication - What good is it (we are moving well beyond the usual MMORPG lameness/simplicity/tediousness) : * A more detailed object system, opening up additional activities and complications in playing experience (when was the last time your BS1/BS2 weapon jammed and you had to switch to another one??). Special tools open additional Action options (dont throw away that grappling hook you found....) * Fabrication Skills should be useful in active 'situations' (combat/adventure/on-the-spot use). So Fabrication is worthwhile for the Player to develop (even if to just a competant awareness/knowledge) for the game to be something other than the usual MMORPG's grindy money-grubbing fake crafting. * Ad hoc/quick-fixes/quick-n-dirty to add more imagination-stretching options on ways to handle many situations ("Hey Im gonna wedge that door shut and we'll be miles away before those creepy goons can get it open"... "I just need a type-3 Fuse and I can get the lights on in here".... Etc...) * Lets break the current sad-pathetic MMORPG pattern -- Quests/Missions which EVERYONE does and solves the same way and EVERYONE gets exactly the same loot item payoff. Combinatoric Auto-Customizations can be program-driven to scramble Quest loot. That loot might need some 'fixing up'/reconditioning before it is fully uesful (continuing the associated activities). Various parts and components can be found (or specificly searched for) to make game 'loot' more than just alot of crap you pile up to sell to a generic vendor/shop. * Fabricated (customized/improved) items should be Enablers, not 'god' weapons (they can help solve situations, but are not to be ruling factor in the Game - instead Player skill/creativity and know-how is to be, ). Ordinary items can still usually get things done (but maybe requiring a bit more effort/time/repeated attempts/failures/breakage). * It should be possible to make items better than the Player's usual 'loot' finds (improvement in utility should generally be small to prevent the "Gotta Have That +3 Sword so I can kill Dragons" crap). Many Splicers dont keep their objects in good condition and haven't the skill to improve their possessions much (larger organized Splicer faction may have more skill specialization, and thus have better quality/kept stuff...) * Player should not have to worry about item stats or attributes (bean-counting game numbers is the realm of unimaginitive Players and Developers). 'This is better than that' differences generally should be discernable. * Objects with incremental Improvements ( addable customization/alteration attributes ) -- Please let there be no laughable (pathetic) "Legendary" weapon which you soon discard for a newer "+1 Legendary" Weapon (and then another (+2 Legendary) and another --- so many, that Players should be knee deep in discarded weapons in the Game World - beside being upto their eyeballs in corpses). Lets avoid more time-wasting Grind-encouraging unimaginitive Player activities. * Some Player's Skills to read/inform/indicate objects to determine if they can be fixed/repaired/modified (with your current skills/tools). Evaluate/judge items state - likelihood of breaking during attempted repairs - of possible success/cost/etc.. Object attributes should be a bit more realistic (in complexity) with no easy 'fits all' (over-generalized) stat-equations. The Player still needs to be given an idea of what they can fix, and what/how it is risky to attempt it . * Effort and preparation and facilities required to do repairs (sorry you cant carry a forge/drillpress around with you - a temporrary patch (in the field) is the best you will get - you will have to make due or use something else -- dont let certain game items become an indispensable use-all and thus become a 'crutch' ...). * The Player can always pay to get stuff repaired (NPC/Player involvements) vs. repairing it yourself (or by your NPC Team). This gives reason to interact with NPCs (you see them living all comfy in the City when YOU are the one who goes out and risks 'life and limb' Adventuring and expanding the New City). * Item component/parts/materials from the old days of Rapture - are often of better quality (generally). Recently-made parts/items are more likely to be failure-prone/kludged/uglier-looking. Objects have a 'Quality' system. * The more complex the machine, the more maintenance it usually will require. --- How much of the Game is this 'Fabrication' activity suppose to be ? * For weapons/protective gear it will directly effect Adventuring (Player has to be involved some bit, since they use it). * Enablers - an activity done once to get by the requirements of a Quest/Mission -- activity is introduced to player using their basic skills -- some Quests should require special skills/tools Players have to manage (in preparation) to get access to. Later, player can decide if developing such skills will be advantage for further Quests/Missions. * As money-makers in the City (commerce to support Adventuring), but it should be streamlined to minimize tedious activities (Your NPC Team lackeys can moonlight for CASH in their free time, and you can dump 'reconditioned' loot on NPC middlemen). * Business operations - Once production infrastructure is set up (more advanced 'Fabrication' for the machinery involved....), each 'run' of production may need some 'fix/tweak/repairs/replacements'. You can get incremental production improvements if you bother to invest the effort. (Players organizes it, but after that it would be Auto-run (NPCs) to get rid of the need for tedious micromanagement), * Smart NPC Team that keeps Player's things running/maintained without Player having to constantly watch everything (again less tedium, as Players gametime should NOT be wasted like that if possible). Player may have to decide/prioritize things, if resources are limited, but repetitive grunt work can largely be done by NPC lackeys. --- --- --- --- --- Another Asset To Build : WorkBench and ToolKits ' Programmable slots for various in-game tool objects, all laid out (visually) so you can access (grab) them without tedious inventory (interface) searching - and to see what you have, so you know what you can do. Including selections of various 'expendables' (parts is parts). Probably 'Drawers' for different types. Tool Kits can be picked up/dropped off as a single item (again saving on inventory/storage shuffling routine tedium) Template system allows custom versions for particular crafts, as well as more flexible Interface design for selection/modifiable editing of individual Objects (Player Created Interfaces). The same idea applies to 'Ammo Belts' -- Where all the ammo/tools/options for a specific weapon goes with it as a group Object. Likely you could have a 'Comment' note slot for the Player to remind themselves of related 'Things to Do' Such 'kits' can act as a guideline for the "Team" NPCs to keep you supplied (automatically) without micromanaging that activity (MMORPGs are Known for their tedious activities via bothersome interfaces). --- --- --- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . --- --- --- '''Added amusement for 'Fabrications' : ' Make it a bit of a gambling game to add Player interest (more than #$%^&* tediums repetition) * Real Repairs (chance of degrading as well as improving an object) * Fewer 'Work Actions' (low repetition), otherwise it just become a 'numbers' averaging game for similar results. If its too repetitive, it simply becomes 'statistical', so need some 'all in' type effort/material wagering. Risk a lot for chance at exceptional/greater outcomes/breakthroughs. * Exceptional 'makings' (results) Not done via the automatic 'routine' Underling ('Team') tasks. * Then the Player has to go collect the materials/components again (formula/recipes) * Mentioned elsewhere - various Tool/Skill/Material quality modifiers to the actions * Actual USEFULNESS for the items, not just "Sell to the Vendor" money generating schemes which most MMORPGs have (the landfill in those games - full of useless 'crafted items' which soon would bury all those game's huge maps 80 feet deep). * You shouldn't do your Fabrication activities when you have a hangover or a mangled(injured) hand (or when sleepy). --- --- --- '''Technogibberish : Use of various 'fake' techno names for parts/components/devices like the infamous "Gonk-u-lator", for all the little dohickeys and bits that are simplifications of mechanisms (too real for the game - too real is usually 'boring') : * Acme-plug, a part * Minstrom Wrench, a tool (used to adjust Acme-plugs) * Smythe Junction, an electrical component * Brabazon oil, a material used to heat treat metal * Menzies Serum, a drug used for treating delusional insanity * Dilbert Probe, a bio-electronic testing tool * Kyburz Fuse Generic names : * Type-3 magnetic module * R-34 Wire Cluster ( a low-bid made part ) * Length of #2 wire * Cleaning Solution * Triple-A Bearing * Sheet of Grade 2 Wallboard * 3 inch L-beam Other more real named parts/tools can likewise be used : * 1/2 inch nut & bolt * Monkey Wrench * Jewelers Screwdriver (very small) * Hacksaw * Red Varnish * Duct Tape All those devices and machines we see on the Walls of Rapture will have to be given names (and even plausible functions). --- --- --- Interior Construction : * Rigging - how else are you going to move those heavy wall sections and floor tiles all day long for your structural repairs. A-Frames, pulleys, ropes, tiedowns. Assemblies of objects places by Player to manipulate the terrain. * Likely that many/most of the inner walls/ceiling sections were fairly lightweight (largely insulation/sound deadening). ** They aren't load bearing walls, just there to cover up the ugly cement most of the buildings are made of. * Floor section are sturdier but laid down like tiles. * Bags of Concrete - high strength for those critical structural repairs - hydraulic cement sets-in-water formula ** There would be a industrial plant somewhere to make this useful material (probably near Hephaestus) ** Stockpiles deployed in various Maintenance centers (much probably used up by Maintenance Daddies over the years) * Floor structural components to repair major damage (those big holes in floors we saw in the games) ** Usually metal - so welding skills useful * Some floors are heavy reinforced concrete compression struts required to keep those huge flat walls from imploding from the sea's immense water pressure. --- --- --- Player-run construction 'Company': * Registered with city. * Work done for other parties to rework/repair buildings * Contract with payment installments * Organized material supplies (cut out the middleman) * Appropriate tools for heavy work and utilities * Required construction skills (with amount of work needed, lots of opportunity for 'on the job' training). * Some City sponsored work - most of the 'Big Projects' * One or more players form a 'company' to increase the manpower for larger projects. * Sub-contracting (NPCs are usually available when players don't want to take part) * Do work that other Players don't want to do (when they prefer other game activities ...) --- --- --- Crafting/Fabrication Logically Done at Established Bases : Required Infrastructure (you carry around way too much already just with 'repair' kits). Too many varied tools/facilities to be portable. So IS IT that realistic to have them teleport/gate/fastride to these bases between adventuring way out in The Ruins ?? Instead have NPC "butt-monkeys" ('Team' NPCs able to do various 'Tasks' ) who do alot of the mundane stuff for you (and marshaled 'loads' and efficient transport to minimize trips). Pneumo works some places, doesn't in many others. Transit and Pneumo is expanding to outlying points from New Rapture. --- --- --- Useful Fabrication ''' : MMORPG Fabrication (Crafting) should, first and foremost, give something to the Player which they cannot otherwise easily get from NPC Vendors or as Mission Loot. I've seen too many games where all the Skill/Advancement Ramp effort put into crafting results in items not any better than what every player can get easily from Mission Loot. I've also seen crafting (in some games) made into boringly repetitive mass production, AND facilitated by 'mass buying' by NPC Vendors who buy all items at below the cost of the plentiful raw materials/components which went into making them (done to prevent an automatic game Cash generator in the simplistic/effortless(tedious) craft system). One early MMORPG Ultima Online (of more sophisticated design than many today) had Daily limits and auto-adjusting buy prices to prevent the above mentioned loophole. The BioShock MMORPG would have a more complex resource acquisition mechanism (No 'Monty Hall' Loot everywhere). --- --- --- . . . . . . . . Various interactive widgetry interface thingees would make up part of the Fabrication system in the MMORPG (analogous 'bits and pieces' you kludge together to get useful things in the game). This is some interface which has gears and activators and electrics involved (The MMORPG would have far more to it). --- --- --- '''Fabrication Via Bio-Technology : A great deal of progress was made before the City fell, and even if the Player cannot (easily) discover/develop any new such technologies, there are many still laying out in the ruins, which might be found and used. Alot of specialized Genetic Engineering Tools are required (often creating the tools is most of the Solution). Advancing 'The Cure' requires finding these things for the Tenenbaum Institute ( a name that some people call the place you got 'Cured' from being a Splicer). Biochemical components, reagents, mediums, etc ... are themselves required pre-products (and many of them are produced using genetic biochemistry.) Basic raw materials are other Biological materials which themselves have to be produced (like fabrication of parts) and require high standards of quality/refinement. (So expect to see mad-scientist-type chemistry setups around - pretty colored liquids bubbling and bunsen burners boiling fumes, etc..) Some Gene patterns can be copied/cloned/cultured, but not modified (which would require substantial understandings and detailed knowledge of genetic patterns). Many such 'Plasmid' patterns (used for Tonics and Plasmids) were borrowed/isolated from natural genetic material (and not created). --- --- --- Player Fabrication - A Production Line Process : Some goods production have complex formulas with multiple steps and components. * Better workers, machines, and better tools can be substituted in order to increase productivity. * Different worker slots in the process can be filled with workers of appropriate skills and higher skill ability can accelerate that segment of the process. * Better machines (special tools) can also be substituted to speed up production steps. * As per the 'eliminate the grind' directive for the MMORPG, once a production process is set up, a player's NPCs can do the work automatically. * Part of the 'automatic' process could also be selling the product on to buyers (same for deals for inflow of raw materials). Many NPC businesses in New Rapture operate this way already (so something actually goes on in those back rooms.... including 'jobs' that players can take while they re-orient themselves after their 'cure' and can start climbing the business 'food chain'). Of course this all is small scale production. Bigger Assembly lines (like that story-atrocity Fink Mfg Fantasy in Infinite BS) just cant work : One - Because they are too costly, Two - Because there aren't enough Customers to warrant that scale of Production. --- --- --- --- --- . .